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Immigration (Work Permits)

I am rather shocked to say it, but I agree with every word of my hon. Friend’s remarks.- My hon. Friend is notable for her reticence, so I am sure that we can be confident that nobody will discover this unaccustomed level of agreement. It has been a scandal in many parts of our national life that people have been able to work illegally in a system where people are drawn in from across the world to work in the most appalling and exploitative circumstances. My hon. Friend is right to say that that needs to be addressed. It was a central theme of the five-year strategy on this that we published last year. The gangmaster legislation has also been important in this regard, and we have published proposals jointly with the Department of Trade and Industry, the TUC and the CBI. The system is working better now, and we have had a significant number of arrests and convictions in precisely the areas that my hon. Friend describes. However, she is entitled to press still harder to ensure that we enforce the existing law in the most rigorous way. As she suggests, there is still a long way to go.